#cripple life

[justsomerandomgay]

i remember being ten years old and wishing to die rather than experience the pain i was in yet still my parents and my doctors didn’t believe me. sometimes it just hits me. that wasn’t a normal experience for a ten year old, was it?

[crippledbanshee]

I fucking hate it when people say I'm going to be dependent on my mobility aids. Like, hell yes, I am dependent on them because I'm disabled and their function is to help me live better, I need these aids, they are not just ornaments.

[chronicallycouchbound]

Ugly Laws. Creepy coming from the word cripple. Freak shows. Fear of clowns. Bearded ladies with PCOS & intersex variations. Contortionists with EDS. Little people. “Missing links” people with Microcephaly. “Snake man” people with limb differences. Lack of welfare programs. Disability rights. All of these things are connected.

[tinyleafkid]

i don’t have many tumblr followers, but i’m desperate to get this as far out into the world as i can

i’m in desperate need of a wheelchair, and i don’t have the money to make that happen

please help and share if you’re able

https://gofund.me/81a4e7a4

[minimallycreative]

i love how sometimes, despite all the medical advancements of the 21st century, the only thing that relieves pain is sitting/laying/standing in a weird position because it places/doesn't place pressure on certain spots

[cistematicchaos]

I don’t want to sound mean or some shit when talking about how exercise shouldn’t be randomly suggested to disabled people period but I also want it to be clear I’m not just saying that shit in a fit of anger. 

Both my sister and brother were almost killed because doctors would rather push them to keep exercising on the regular than figure out what the hell was going on with their health. I have numerous family members who’ve died because no one gave a shit about their health as long as they keep up “regular” things like exercise. I was guilted into exercising to “manage” my “issues” until I couldn’t even walk and then I was guilted some more. I didn’t even know I had asthma until I was seventeen and someone told me that light running wasn’t supposed to be horribly painful and restrict your breathing. And that’s only a nice chunk of my reasons! 

Like, it’s dangerous, period. I don’t care if we’re talking about mental health or physical health, telling people to exercise when you don’t even know what they’re dealing with, telling people that exercising is The Way to manage their disabilities, telling people they need to exercise or else “of course you feel bad!” is dangerous. I’m not trying to be dramatic but I’m not lying when I say it kills us. It hurts us. Exercise isn’t inherently healthy and even if it was, some of us CANNOT meet your standards of health! Just. Listen to us. Please.

[jemineye]

seriously, though. i barely have enough energy, let alone using that same energy to cope with major chronic pains. not to mention dealing with anxiety/depression. when you see me out and about, im also not doing so great. don't chastise or be snarky towards me because of my routines.

[wonder-cripple]

When you call disabled people inspiring for doing ordinary things, the real message is this:

“Wow, I’m shocked that you have the guts to exist! You mean you don’t hate yourself enough to never leave your house? HOW?? So brave!”

It isn’t a compliment. It’s insulting. Stop it.

[justsomerandomgay]

it’s weird how if the stuff my chronic illnesses causes happened to an abled person, they’d call an ambulance but i’m just expected to get up and carry on with my day

[crippledbanshee]

"I don't know if I am disabled enough to use a mobility aid, but it has helped me a lot..." Sweetie, if it's helping you it's because you need it, completely able-bodied people don't need mobility aids to live to the fullest. If you can, use these aids, you deserve it.

[tumble-tv]

The body isn't body-ing

[chronicallycouchbound]

Being disabled is beautiful, but it’s also difficult. Both things can be true.

[cripple-culture-is]

cripple culture is being in level 8-9 pain and still going to school/work

Yes! The fact that we are expected to carry on our days like non-disabled people is absolutely ridiculous and incredibly unfair.

[cistematicchaos]

I need some of you to stop thinking that being visibly disabled comes with some kind of inherent privilege. I need some of you to stop thinking people are less ableist to us because they can easily tell we’re disabled. I need some of you to stop using us as a prop in your discussions about other disabilities, saying shit like “You’d never say or do X to a visibly disabled person so why-.”

I need some of you to stop telling physically disabled people that they’re the most privileged in disabled spaces. I need some of you to stop coming into discussions specifically about physical disabilities and the ableism directed towards physically disabled people and then claiming we’re excluding you because you’re not currently being centered. 

We are all disabled, all part of the same community. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be ableist towards other disabled people and I’m seeing a lot of you do it and it’s exhausting. So, take a minute, step back and think about it and stop. 

[cripplepunkpics]

ID: a black “handicap accessible” style wheelchair user silhouette holding up a middle finger. They also have a red spiked mohawk. End ID.

[enbycrip]

I’m seeing the “people don’t expect physically disabled people to be less disabled for their comfort so why do they expect mentally ill/neurodivergent people to do so?” memes making the rounds again, and I am here to remind you, as an autistic and ADHD, mentally ill, chronically ill person with multiple physical impairments that this is just not the case.

If you are both and that is your personal experience, I obviously do not expect you to deny that, but please be aware that this is very much *not* universal.

I am a full time mobility aid user and part-time wheelchair user. Both my personal experience and thousands of accounts from the wheelchair user community reflect the fact that most wheelchair users and other mobility aid users *continually* have our boundaries pushed around our use of mobility aids for the ease and comfort of others.

“I know we said step-free access but it’s just a couple of small steps so that counts, right? Our staff can lift you if you *really* can’t manage.”

“Oh we can’t really fit your chair or rollator in the car so you’ll just have to manage without them. You walked that far last week with the rollator so doing a few days around a city with a stick should be fine, right?”

“Your cousin really doesn’t want a stick in her wedding photos so you’ll just have to manage, but there will be lots of seats and it’s not like you have to stand up really.”

“You’re much too young to be using a stick anyway. Wait til you get older and you *really* know what pain is.”

“I know that restaurant is on the second floor and there’s no lift but the rest of the team really like the food there so I’m sure you’ll manage, won’t you?”

“We really don’t like you using that wheelchair - surely it will make you more disabled?”

“I know our accessible toilet is down a flight of stairs but people don’t really need to use a bathroom in a restaurant do they?”

“Oh, we booked this restaurant for x celebration (bonus points if it’s for *your* birthday/graduation etc) because it’s so nice and it just *didn’t* occur to us to check if it was accessible!”

These are just picked off the top of my head as a number of things I have encountered over my years as a mobility aid and wheelchair user.

I picked this out of my various impairments because wheelchair users are so frequently regarded as the sort of “iconic” disabled person, but my boundaries on pain and mobility aid - including wheelchair - use are genuinely pushed at least as much as those of my neurodivergences and mental illnesses. I have been accused of “bad behaviour”, “doing it for attention”, “faking it”, “making a scene” and “not really disabled” multiple times when the issues causing the problem were physical - including when my legs have physically given out on me in public places, causing me to fall.

None of this is peculiar to my experience. I have encountered hundreds of thousands of similar accounts and experiences from other disabled people all over the world.

I will absolutely allow that it sometimes feels easier, more “valid”, to ask for reasonable adjustments/accommodations for physical impairments than for neurodivergence or mental illness, but I would also contend that that is an issue of internalised disableism at least as much as anything else.

I believe at least part of the issue is that the image of disability the majority of the abled population has is that it is an unchanging, monolithic thing. “Can’t see”. “Can’t hear”. “Can’t walk.” “Can’t speak.” Whereas the majority of disability is *considerably* more nuanced than that. This is *very* much the case with neurodivergences and mental illnesses, but it is also very much the case with physical impairments.

Basically - being disabled is often pretty awful. The world is extremely inaccessible. It is often tempting to view other types of disabled people as “having it easier” or “encountering more understanding” etc etc. While this may absolutely be true on an individual level, particularly intersectionally (money, race, gender, queerness etc *absolutely* affect life as a disabled person) on a systemic level, it is equally absolutely *not* the case.

And various institutions *massively* benefit from internal envy and infighting in any marginalised community. Perpetuating the idea that “those people have it waaay easier/are stealing your resources etc etc” lets institutions off the hook. The only way we can practically improve the situation - accessibility, services etc etc - for *all* of us is by solidarity with each other as oppressed, marginalised disabled people.